This is picture guide to aid people building the Mary Kay dollhouse from dollhousedesigns.com. The plans were designed by Jon Lash. This project took me about 1 month to complete and was completed during my holidays from college for my niece.

Check out the video, but I encourage you to read through the steps.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=01l656wfC2U%26sns=em

My sister is taking pictures of the finished product for me ( i forgot to take some before handing it over to my niece). I will add them as soon as I receive them!

I hope you enjoyed.

Step 1: Lay Out and Cutting.

The materials and lay out dimensions are outlined in the plans provided at http://dollhousedesigns.com/MaryKay.html
It is worth the extra time to ensure that you measure everything precisely, as everything that follows relies on this.

Step 2: Loose Assembly/Laminating

This step requires patience and attention to detail. I began by placing the large outer walls in the routed channels of the ground floor. It is important that they are seated properly. Then spread glue on the inner wall and carefully align it and hold it in place. This was done for the four inner walls shown in the picture. You must then carefully remove the outer and inner walls together and place weights on them and allow sufficient drying time.

Once the first floor is set you can place the walls back in the ground floor and place the first floor in place (no glue here yet).

You continue this process until all of the walls are aligned and laminated.

Step 3: Layout of the Windows

Now that all the main walls have the inner walls attached I drew out the places for the windows and cut their openings. I used a drill to put a hole in the corner and a hacksaw to finish the cut.

All of the windows and doors were purchased from ebay for ~ 70 dollars.

Step 4: The Bay Windows

At this point none of the wall sections are glued together. The floors are held in place with wood screws which were pre-drilled and counter sunk. The angled cuts to get all the bay window panel walls to align correctly was difficult, but I kept pressing on.

Step 5: Roof

This is a very tricky part of the project. I continued to remind myself to keep going and that it would eventually all come together.

After the roof was aligned its was ready to take apart to prime then put it back together gluing as i go.

Step 6: VIDEO of Assembly

Here is a link to me assembling the main structure of the dollhouse. Enjoy.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=01l656wfC2U%26sns=em

Step 7: Wood Filler and Sanding

This step of the project is probably the most important. I build a giant wooden dollhouse for a 4 year old to play with (splinters would not be appreciated). Lots and lots of sanding and extra trim was added to prevent any chance of boo boos. Once I was happy with the finish the entire house got a coat of kills mildew resistant water based primer.

Step 8: A Bit of Color

After priming it was time to bring some color in. I was going to go with typical house colors, but my mom convinced me to go with something more imaginative (it is for children after all). Cheers to her for her expertise in picking colors!

Step 9: Roof Covering, Window Instillation, Flooring,

We found a nice color felt at the hobby lobby in town and used that because it provides a softer surface than anything else I could think of. It was attached by painting wood glue the the roof and laying it in place. The ridges are covered using strips of felt backed with double sided tape. The flooring was purchased from hobby lobby. I have done a previous dollhouse and laid the hard wood floors piece by piece with the skinny popsicle sticks, sanding them to a nice finish, staining them, and polying them. I recommend buying the sheets of hard wood as it saves a tremendous amount of time.

Step 10: Finished Pictures

My sister I taking pictures of the finished product for me ( i forgot to take some before handing it over to my niece). I will add them as soon as I receive them!

Well here they are! We hung a bell attached to a string for the door bell. All the floors are installed and the roof ridge strips on in place. I used a place mat for the carpet. Trim was also installed around each window.

I hope you enjoyed.